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My day at Delbert the Madman's shop. Pic heavy.

So i finally worked a day into my schedule to make it up to Delbert's shop. First impressions is Del is a super nice guy. We got to chatting about all kinds of stuff, mostly knife making...mostly lol. He has no reservations what so ever about discussing and showing his techniques. Just being able to watch and chat with him has made me change my whole perspective on what i am doing. I can't say enough about how much help this has been to me. I would highly recommend new guys starting out, give your local makers a call and ask if you can maybe hang out and watch them work...the experience is priceless! And if you get lucky, They will be as awesome to you as Delbert was to me. Ok now for some pics...lots of pics...
Delbert with the hammer head.....Kinda warm

And of course...goodies brought home
27 inches of damascus sweetness
Cannot go to his place and not buy a bar
And we made a 4 1/2 lb hammer lol
And some round vine pattern

I got a chance to handle a few of his kitchen knives.....Absolutely amazing....

I cannot say enough good stuff about Delbert. He is a kind and generous person. I had an amazing time and hope to do it again real soon.
Thanks Delbert.

The hammer head is made from 4140. Talked to him about doing the next one out of a 4140/15n20 damascus. Now i just have to that ball rolling. Suppose i need to get this one finished before i get tooo far ahead of myself. I need to make the first hammer work and pay for the second lol. Watching him drift the hammer in the press with a 3/4 round of O-1( Go figure) before he did the large drift was awesome. We did get it stuck in the head, but was tons of fun anyway

We did indeed have a blast. Mike and I have been talking back and forth on the phone a day or two a week for several months. This was on sunday, normally a day that I usually don't do any work on. Mike showed up with another friend and we sat around shooting the bull for a couple of hours, then he asked me to heat treat a blade, so I set the kiln to running. I decided to light the forge as well. Mike had a 2 inch round bar of 4140 that he had worked a bit with the intention of making a hammer. I decided that he should see the real power of my press. The first squeeze earned exclamations of amazement from them both, I just grinned. I worked it down in a few heats and asked Mike of he wanted me to cut in the eye as well, He said sure and in 3 heats we had a 3/4" hole cut for the eye. I then expanded it with the tapered mandrel I had made for a project of my own(see pic #6) I wasn't making enough progress with the 2 lb hammer so I started using the 6 lb. A few heats with the big hammer and we were done, and then it was on to heat treating(pic #7).
In spite of the fact that I work for myself I rarely take a day just to goof off and make whatever comes to mind. Mike at one point asked me about tongs and I thought about making him a pair, but we did the hammer instead, maybe next time.

[url=http://www.ealyknives.com/][SIGPIC][/SIGPIC][/url]
Laminated metals specialist, Kitchen knife and gadget maker
[url]www.ealyknives.com[/url]
[url]www.mokume-jewelry.net[/url]
"Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life"